Hadran: Advancing Talmud Study for Women

A fetus that is inside the mother at the time of her slaughter is permitted without needing its own slaughter. If a limb of the fetus emerges before the mother is slaughtered, that limb is forbidden. However, if the limb is pulled back inside before the mother’s slaughter, its status is subject to a dispute: Rav holds that the limb remains forbidden, while Rabbi Yochanan rules that it is permitted. Three difficulties are raised against Rav’s position—one from our Mishna and two from other tannaitic sources—and all are ultimately resolved in the same manner. A difficulty raised against Rabbi Yochanan’s position remains unresolved.

The Gemara details the hermeneutical methods used to permit drinking water from pits, ditches, or caves without concern for finless and scaleless creatures. Regarding water in vessels, the braita states that its exemption is explicit in one verse and implicit in another. One version holds that the permission for vessels is explicit, derived from the verse explaining that fish in seas and streams must have fins and scales to be eaten (Vayikra 11:9), meaning that anything in vessels is permitted. The second version reverses this, arguing that the explicit source is the subsequent verse (Vayikra 11:10-11) which forbids fish in seas and streams that lack fins and scales.

The discussion then shifts to spontaneous generation. While creatures that crawl upon the ground are biblically forbidden, creatures that spontaneously generate within vessels or food are excluded from this prohibition, provided they have not yet crawled upon the ground. The Gemara delineates the exact parameters of this exclusion.

The braita from the school of Rav and the braita from the school of Rabbi Yishmael disagree about whether a grasshopper with a long head is kosher. The source of the dispute stems from their application of different hermeneutical principles to the verse. Further on, the Gemara raises two difficulties against other parts of the braita of the school of Rabbi Yishmael and resolves them.

The definitive kosher signs of fish are fins and scales. A fish that lacks scales in its youth but will grow them later, or a fish that has scales but sheds them upon leaving the water, is kosher. Since any fish with scales inherently has fins, the Torah did not need to specify fin, but did so to magnify the Torah and make it glorious.

The need for two separate verses, one permitting fish with fins and scales and one prohibiting fish without fins and scales, is to establish both a positive and a negative commandment for one who transgresses.

The words “This you can eat from all that are in the waters,” which are seemingly superfluous, teach that one who drinks water from pits, ditches, and caves does not need to be concerned about fish that grew there that lack fins and scales, as they are not included in the prohibition.